Art As Catharsis is proud to announce the release of Arcing Wires’ PRIME – an enigmatic fusion of math rock, metal and jazz.
Arcing Wires take due care in exploring a wide range of sounds on Prime. At times, the record echoes with post-rock’s atmospheric grandeur, math rock’s blistering time signatures and slicing riff work, coated with a healthy dose of tenor saxophone to round out the mix. Despite these elements typically coming in contradiction to one another, Arcing Wires’ real talent comes from striking down the barriers between genres with fluidity and grace.
Taking inspiration from the likes of Ben Eunson, Periphery, Avishai Cohen’s Big Vicious, Donny McCaslin and Kneebody and many more, this is one of the most eclectic, ambitious and forward thinking records to come out of Australia’s jazz scene in years.
Starting with light grooves before slowly opening into fluttery, technical sax and guitarwork, Blue Steel is as busy as it is impressive. This second single from Prime follows the trend of melting several genres down into a single song, yet the prevailing theme seems to be a balance between technicality and peace. Moments of the song strike with abstract polyrhythms delivered lightly, but as the song comes to the close, the driving force is a mighty solo, burning brightly above math-like chops as the song comes to a victorious finish.
“The title came about during a band brainstorm,” says guitarist Felix Lalanne. “I find it hard naming instrumental songs and I’m always fascinated by different peoples’ approach to it. After a good deal of back and forth on various un-PC themes that shall not be mentioned, we settled on “Blue Steel” as a reference to Zoolanders iconic “look”. Incidentally, I learnt “Bluing” steel is the process of coating and protecting steel from rust, giving it that dark bluish tint. Listening back to the finished track now – I think the song definitely sounds dark metallic-blue to my ears.”
With performances at Sydney’s VIVID and Fringe Festivals, Arcing Wires are no strangers to success. 2019 took the band to Jazz festivals in Indonesia and Holland along with a successful 10 date tour across Australia – noted for their immersive live show adorned with lighting and projections. The release of Prime’s first single, The Lizard, has already turned more than a few heads – and as Catacaustic and future singles prove themselves to be more ambitious and genre-bending than the last, the full release of Prime will undoubtedly leave its mark on the Australian music scene for years to come.
Arcing Wires’ Prime is available for streaming via Bandcamp on November 6th. Blue Steel is available for streaming now.
